


Celery

by Kittywitch



Series: Cat AU [2]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: AU, Cat AU, Fifth Doctor - Freeform, Foster Sibling AU, Gen, Peri Brown - Freeform, Tegan & Nyssa & Adric, That's the platonic tag right?, dog au, family au, space sibs being platonic and wholesome, team five as a family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:28:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24256675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittywitch/pseuds/Kittywitch
Summary: Cat owner Peri runs into her old dog and the family who are now living with them. From the Cat AU.
Series: Cat AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1751011
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Celery

Celery

The golden retriever bounded through the park, barking shrilly as his rust-and-beige striped lead dragged through the grass behind him.

“ _Celery!”_ Adric shouted, chasing after the animal, threatening to fall on his face with every other step. As his foster sisters overtook him, the threat made good and the teenager found himself sprawled facedown in the grass. Tegan continued trying to catch Celery, but Nyssa paused to check that Adric was still alright.

“That stupid dog is going to be the death of me.” Adric grumbled as Nyssa helped him to his feet.

“He can’t help getting excited. Did you hurt anything?”

“My pride, and that’s been knocked around like a cricket ball already,” Adric grumbled, “Tegan’s going to make this out to be my fault, I just know it.”

“You _were_ holding the lead when Celery got away.” Nyssa said evenly. Adric frowned at Nyssa, clearly feeling betrayed.

“He pulled at the lead! I wasn’t expecting him to bolt!” Adric protested, with just a hint of petulance.

A few metres ahead, Tegan had just about caught up with Celery, because the golden retriever was bouncing up and down in front of a strange young woman and barking shrilly. The woman in question was short and pretty with a brown bob and a surprised expression. She was clearly trying to calm down the dog by petting his head down to waist level.

Tegan caught up with the dog but not her breath, pausing with her shoulders hunched and heaving.

“Huh—sorry—my brother— _idiot_ —sorry—” Tegan gasped out. It didn’t seem to register to the young woman, who exclaimed in an astounded and shrill American accent, “ _Celery?!_ ”

Tegan looked up with surprise. The American girl laughed as Celery began to lick her hands.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have any biscuits—what are you doing here?” she asked, rubbing his furry head.

“Sorry—no, not sorry, confused--” Tegan corrected herself. “Do you know my dog? _How_ do you know my dog?”

“I’m sorry. I should have introduced myself before _he_ did.” the woman grinned sheepishly. “Hi. I’m Peri. I think this used to be my dog.” She looked up at Tegan and the grin took on a mischievous look.

“Unless there’s two golden retrievers named Celery who can’t stay on their leashes and recognise me by the way my hands-uh, taste.”

The younger siblings caught up to Tegan and Peri, while Celery barked shrilly and ran small circles around them.

“Yep, that’s Celery, trying to herd us.” Peri chuckled, “I had to give him away when I moved. I heard he went to a nice family.”

“Well, he went to a _family_.” Tegan chuckled. She put out a hand to shake. “I’m Tegan Jovanka, these two are my foster sibs; Adric and Nyssa.”

“Charmed.” Nyssa said politely.

“Did Celery bite you or anything? He’s not very well trained.” Adric asked, glaring at the dog, who yipped at him sharply.

“He’s fine. He just recognised me. Hi, I’m Peri. You guys must be the family I gave Celery to when I moved to England.”

“I do remember hearing he used to live with an American family.”

“I couldn’t get him into this country, how did you manage it?”

“You’ll have to ask Adric, Celery’s been living in Blue House longer than I have.” Nyssa suggested.

Adric shrugged and didn’t answer.

“What’s Blue House?” asked Peri.

“It’s where we live. We’re foster kids.” Tegan explained, pausing to roll her eyes and shoulders together. “Well, Nyssa and Adric are. I’m legally an adult now, so I’ve been working for Blue House, rather than living there.”

“That’s… really cool.” Peri smiled. “It must be great to work with kids.”

“I mostly go on short flights so the younger kids don’t have to travel alone. When they’re meeting their new parents, but once to pick up a boy who had been kicked out of a reform school. I’ve always wanted to travel, but I’ll admit I didn’t expect this.”

Tegan pulled a tiny grimace at Peri and stage-whispered over her foster siblings’ heads.

“I have a secret, I don’t actually like kids that much.”

“That’s not a secret, Tegan.” Adric said loudly. “And I’m not a kid.” All three young ladies laughed at that.

“I do hope you haven’t been missing Celery too much.” Nyssa said kindly.

“I did, a lot, at first. Even when I got my cat I still missed him for a while. The President is a lot different than Celery.” Adric looked confused for a moment.

Tegan pulled out her phone.

“If you want, I could add you on Facebook. We post a lot of pictures of Celery, so you’ll know he’s doing okay.”

“I’d like that. And I know I’m the only Perpugilliam Brown on Facebook, so I’ll be easy to find.”

“Ah,” said Tegan, looking at her phone and chewing her lip. “How do you spell that?”

“Oh. B-R-O-W-N.” Peri grinned mischievously. Adric groaned.

“Oh, come now, Adric, she’s funny.” said Nyssa.

“Funnier than you, at any rate.” Tegan added.

“No, I just realised… you named your cat ‘The President’. ” He covered his eyes and tried to rub the joke out of them.

“And reactions like that are exactly why I did.”

**Author's Note:**

> I thought the Cat AU was going to be a one-shot, but I woke up this morning and thought, "The golden retriever who Peri gave to a family was named Celery". And then I sat down and an hour later I had a full fic. Which is really strange for me.


End file.
